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Lobsters, Crabs, Prawns, and Shrimps, to Boil

A method of boiling lobsters, crabs, prawns, and shrimp in salted water, then serving with butter, oil, vinegar, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Lobsters, Crabs, Prawns, and Shrimps, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobsters

  1. Choose lobsters by weight; prefer male for eating and female for sauce.

  2. In a tin vessel, bring water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt for every quart of water.

  3. Immediately add the lobsters and cover the pot to maintain a rapid boil.

Boil and finish

  1. Boil for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on size, until they turn bright scarlet.

  2. Skim the saucepan frequently and wipe off any scum from the lobsters.

  3. Rub the shells with fresh butter or sweet oil for a glossy finish.

Serve

  1. Before serving, remove the claws and crack them without disfiguring the meat.

  2. Cut the tail down the middle and lay it open on a dish, with the head and body upright and claws at each end.

  3. Garnish with parsley and serve with oil, vinegar, and cayenne.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lobster + buttertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Lobster + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together890 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lobsters
Provide the main meat, which becomes firm and opaque as the proteins set during boiling.
Fresh butter or sweet oil
Adds fat and gloss to the shells and enriches the flavour of the meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich flavour of the shellfish when served.

The step that matters

Boil for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on size. Boiling too briefly leaves the meat translucent and soft, while overcooking makes it tough and rubbery as the proteins tighten. Size determines how long the heat needs to reach the centre, so timing should follow the weight of each lobster.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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